This is good for a laugh. The popularity of iPods is no secret. (I see them everywhere, now that I have one.) But get this, iPods are so popular on the Microsoft corporate campus that company executives have started writing memos about them.
Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.
To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.
"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."
The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.
So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.
Kinda funny. It looks like no one has tipped off Microsoft employees that it's considered tres gauche to use the earphones that come with the iPod. I must admit, however, that I've been guilty of that very thing, since my favorite earbuds died on me and I haven't had time to shop for a replacement.
